


Dancing's not a Crime

by enbyred



Series: Pray for the Wicked [11]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, One-Sided Attraction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2020-01-25 15:56:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18577720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enbyred/pseuds/enbyred
Summary: Nino's a DJ, not a dancer. That is, unless Marinette is around.





	Dancing's not a Crime

**Author's Note:**

> Based off Panic! At the Disco’s Dancing’s Not a Crime

The club was wonderfully crowded. People were dancing their hearts out, abandoning inhibitions, forgetting life and its problems, and simply dancing to the music Nino played. He grinned, scanning the crowd and seeing the tops of everyone's bobbing heads while (mostly) drunkenly dancing. That was what he loved about working at the club on weekends. People came out to relieve stress and to forget for a little while. He could help them forget to the tune of a catchy song. There was no harm in going out, getting a little drunk, and enjoying some good music.

The club scene was just like it usually was. Dancers packed themselves into the middle of the room, filling every inch of the dance floor. Others were sitting at the tables around the perimeter, talking with each other or watching the dancers. A few were at the bar, drinking and flirting, and as usual, there was one crier the bartender had to pretend to care about consoling. Nino did not envy Alix. She was a trooper, dealing with miserable customers and somehow convincing them that she was genuinely sympathetic.

Something felt off about one corner of the room. Nino tried to locate the source of the strange energy, glancing around the room to see what it could possibly be. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Everyone was talking, dancing, or drinking with someone, and they all seemed perfectly--

There.

A table didn't have as many people as it should have. Meaning, a young woman was sitting alone, and had been the whole time she'd been there. She had been around long enough that it was clear she wasn't meeting anyone, and there was a single empty glass in front of her. It wasn't a big deal. Sometimes people did come to the club alone, sit by themselves, and have a single drink. It didn't happen often. But it did happen. He would have dismissed it if he hadn't seen her pale face, bright blue eyes, and wonderfully dark hair. He knew this girl sitting alone. And he knew that he wasn't going to let that continue.

Catching his coworker, Nino asked, "Can you take over for me for a few minutes, Bridgette? My friend's here, and she looks sad, and-"

A smirk on her face, Bridgette replied, "Of course. Go get your lady, I'll DJ for as long as you need me to."

Relief washed over Nino. "Thank you so much, I owe you one."

"Oh, you owe me so many more than one."

Nino slipped out from behind the sound equipment and tried to squeeze his way around people, staying as close to the walls as he could. He muttered plenty of "Excuse me"s and "Sorry"s as he elbowed past people to get to the table with only one girl. He had to get to her.

He nearly ran to her the moment she was in sight and plopped ungracefully into the seat across from Marinette.

"Hey."

She looked up at him with big, surprised blue eyes. "Hey."

Gesturing to the single empty glass, Nino asked, "You're not one for clubs. Or drinking, as far as I know."

Marinette put her phone down and scoffed. "You're correct. Just one of those nights, I guess." She ran a hand through her hair, avoiding eye contact.

"I get it," Nino said with a nod. "Couldn't get Alya or Adrien to come out with you?"

Ducking her head, Marinette admitted, "I didn't ask. I'm getting away from Adrien for a bit, and you know Alya. She'll want to do something like egg his house, but I just want to have a drink and hear some good music."

Nino nodded slowly. "Yeah. I get that." Suddenly aware that he was imposing on her alone time, he tensed and asked, "Sorry, should I go? If you want to be alone, I can just get back to work." He was already halfway out of his seat.

Marinette grabbed his wrist, then quickly retracted her hand and stared at the table. "You can stay. You, uh…you make sense. You know?"

He eased back down into his seat. No, he wasn't quite sure what she meant, since _she_ wasn't making sense by saying that. Yet, what came out of his mouth was a simple, "Yeah."

Relative silence passed between them, not meeting each other’s eyes. It had been a long time since they had hung out, much less without Adrien or Alya around. The tension between them felt too thick to dissipate, and though she had let go, it felt like her grip on his wrist hadn't loosened. Her hand felt almost like it had burned into his skin, etching her fingerprints into him, like she had put her prints on his heart so long ago.

"Let's dance," he said suddenly, surprising himself.

Marinette's lips were parted, forming shapes that resembled words, with no sound accompanying.

"We don't have to if you don't want to!" Nino held a hand in front of him to insist that it wasn't necessary.

Marinette clamped her mouth shut and nodded, a smile making its way onto her face. Nino tugged his wrist from her grip and slipped his hand into hers to lead her onto the dance floor.

"This feels so weird," she laughed, taking Nino's other hand. "I _am_ with Adrien, and you and Alya didn't part on particularly good terms."

"So?" Nino shrugged and lifted Marinette's hand to spin her, drawing a giggle from her. "It's not like we're on a date. We ran into each other and decided to dance. Nothing bad about that."

Spinning into Nino, Marinette grinned. "Can't argue with that."

One of the only clear thoughts in Nino's head was that Bridgette (or DJ Bri-J, as she liked to call herself) really knew how to choose music. The way the beat pounded in their ears and vibrated through their very beings until it bubbled up into their movements in synchronous dance felt almost as though they were being touched by magic in a room full of people who felt the same. Bridgette was an enchantress, gracing the whole club with a little bit of magic that nobody quite felt like they deserved, but knew that they needed all the same.

And Marinette's laugh. Oh, how she laughed. The tension had melted away from her, and every beat of the music that overflowed into her dancing made her more and more free, pulling the stress of the day away from her. She was able to just be. Just dance. Just laugh. And unfortunately, Nino's heart felt like it was too full and too warm to safely stay in his chest.

"Feeling better?" Nino asked, pulling Marinette close.

She smiled up at him and said, "Yeah. Thanks."

The song ended all too soon, and Marinette, relaxed now, began stepping back from the dance floor, waiting for her friend to follow her. A part of Nino's heart fell, sad that she didn't want to keep dancing, but the way she looked at him, like he was all she cared about in that moment, was more than enough to get him to follow her back to her table.

"So I guess you want to know why I'm alone tonight?" she questioned.

With a shrug, Nino replied, "Only if you feel like sharing. I'm here to listen."

Her hands absently on her empty glass, Marinette quietly began, "Adrien and I have been together for a long time, you know that. Lately, we've been talking about the future. Like, _really_ talking about it. About getting married, about where we could live, what we plan to do. He knows that all I've wanted to do since I was a teenager is design, which means living in a city, staying in the fashion industry. He hates the fashion industry, which is understandable, I absolutely know why he hates it, and I respect that, but he wants to go live way out in the country and have, like, chickens and goats and only eat home-grown food, live hours away from any city, and I just…" She leaned her head into her hands, massaging her temples. "I really do love him, but our ideals for the future aren't matching up, and neither of us want to change our plans. I don't know what to do." She sagged onto the table, looking up at Nino. "Sorry. I didn't mean to dump all that on you."

Nino shook his head and placed a hand on her arm, gently stroking it with his thumb. "You don't need to apologize. That really is rough. I know Adrien can be tough to deal with when he gets his mind set on things like that." Not that she wasn't stubborn.

"We'll figure it out," she sighed. "We will. It just might take us a bit to get to a solution where both of us are happy."

"As long as you're happy."

Her genuine smile felt like it reached into his chest and clawed at his heart, and he knew that his expression flickered, but he didn't let it fall. Her happiness was what mattered. He was happy as a DJ in a nightclub, and he knew that he could somehow move on and find someone he could love. But Marinette had to be happy first.

Eventually, she stood, and Nino hopped up with her. She gave his arm an affectionate touch and said, "Thanks, Nino. For listening, and for the dance. I needed it."

Squeezing her hand with his own, he told her, "Anything for you. Now go live your happiest life." As she walked out of the club, he felt her take a piece of his heart with her.

**Author's Note:**

> This concludes Pray for the Wicked! Thank you so much for reading!!  
> [Come say hi to me on Tumblr!](https://little-red-alchemist-of-doom.tumblr.com/)


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